Here Are All the Nintendo Switch 2 Rumors That Have Kept the Fans Ever-Excited

Fans are eagerly waiting for Nintendo‘s upcoming Switch 2. This device has been making headlines on social media channels since Nvidia’s announcement about a new SoC chip. After immense success with the Pikmin series and Mario franchise, fans were finally expecting Nintendo to bring a developed and upgraded version of Switch devices. 

Now that Nintendo is reportedly gearing up to release its Switch 2 in the first quarter of 2024, let’s take a look at the timeline of all the leaks that hinted at its development.

Leaks that hinted at Nintendo’s Switch 2

18th December of 2019: First leak

On 18th December 2019, the first leak about Nintendo’s Switch 2 was released to the public. Although it wasn’t a direct leak, it hinted to fans about a new Switch 2 hardware under development. On 18 May 2019, Nvidia announced the Orin System on a Chip or SoC, which drew the attention of many gamers.

This is because, with the announcement of SoC, gamers heard about an upcoming successor of the Tegra line, which can certainly be a potential hardware development for the upcoming Switch 2. 

26th of January 2021: Nvidia’s T234

A photo of Nvidia’s T234, a Tegra line successor SoC chip was leaked to the public on 26th of January 2021. This chip sparked many rumors among the players hinting at the future revolution in console hardware. Furthermore, Nvidia promoted all the details about this SoC chip’s performance and capabilities throughout 2021. This is when fans started to believe that Nintendo might be finally planning the release of Switch 2. 

26th March 2021: Tegra Orin Soc

After the leaked image of Nvidia’s SoC chip, another source discussed how this Tegra Orin SoC chip can potentially be used in the hardware of Nintendo’s upcoming Switch 2. This source however hinted at its availability on Switch Pro as well because Nintendo didn’t make any confirmation about Switch 2 at that time.

People believed this rumor following the credibility of this source’s previous leak about the Ampere GPU series. Players believed that both Lovelace cores and SoC Orin chips could definitely improve the hardware of Nintendo’s Switch 2.

11th June 2021: Switch Pro variant

On 11th June fans received another leak from this source, which mentioned a Switch Pro variant of the SoC chip. This T239 chip, codenamed Black Knight appeared as the variant of the T234 chip of Nvidia. Soc Orin T239 Nvidia chip will perform best with a CPU with system specifications of 2GHz, Cortex A78C ARM with an 8-core single cluster. This chip is constructed on Lovelace core, which will offer 1536 shader cores, 32 DLSS cores for graphics and 8 Ray Tracing cores. 

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This SoC chip can smoothly function and multitask in 8 to 16GB RAM. Although this source couldn’t provide further details about the chip and its connection with Switch 2, this surely ignited excitement among Nintendo fans. 

1st March 2022: Nvidia’s DLSS system

On this day a source leaked new information about Nvidia’s DLSS system, which is a core technology of the company’s graphics chip. This leak hinted to fans about support for the T239 SoC Orin chip. Not only that, further this leak disclosed the chip’s compatibility with Nvidia’s DLSS 2.2. It also added references about NVN2 API.

All these leaks definitely started speculation among players about an upcoming console from Nintendo’s Switch team. This custom Nvidia T239 SoC chip will probably consume 10 to 25 watts of power. It will also offer similar capabilities to a Steam Deck with 1.53 to 1.88 teraflops performance overall. 

20th September 2022: Inclusion of SoC T239 Chip on Linux

2oth September 2022 became one of the important days for Switch fans as on this day Nvidia finally included the support of the T239 SoC chip in the Linux system. This inclusion primarily confirmed that SoC chips exist. Although the function of this chip remains hidden, fans finally reached a stable point where they could finally rely on the news that an upcoming Switch 2 might be under development. 

27th of December 2022: Reports

The news about Nintendo’s Switch 2 was finally established when Digital Foundry reports confirmed that Nintendo won’t make a mid-generation upgrade to their existing Switch devices. Following this cancellation, Nintendo also hinted at revisions about the T239 SoC chip’s performance concerning Ampere architecture. The custom-made Nvidia T239 chip will offer a seamless transition with more compatibility for users. Additionally, Nvidia’s unified driver model in the chip will likely provide backward compatibility to access the game library. 

Timeline of Switch 2 Rumors/Leaks and speculation on the hardware
by u/zcomuto in GamingLeaksAndRumours

21st of March of 2023: Samsung 5LPP processor for Switch 2

Fans finally received the confirmation about Switch 2’s development when one Samsung source leaked about Nintendo using Samsung’s 5LPP processor for their upcoming Switch 2 devices. This leak was circulated on the 21st of March 2023. Alongside this information, this Samsung insider source also confirmed Switch 2’s reinforcement of Lovelace core in their Orin SoC chips. Following the Samsung insider’s leak, fans were convinced that Nintendo would finally develop Switch 2 for the fans with an improvised hardware system. 

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This hardware leak hinting at the development of Nintendo’s Switch 2 excited the fans. Not only that, but it also brought ideas about the revolutionary change developers are bringing to the consoles. Nintendo’s Switch 2 will be powerful giving a one-of-a-kind gaming experience for fans. What is your opinion about this upcoming Switch device? Share with us.

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